As a political science major, I get asked a lot, “how did you end up choosing that”. Sometimes it is said in a truly curious tone, but most times it is in disbelief that out of all the majors offered, I picked political science. The number of women in politics is still significantly smaller than the number of men, which is disappointing, but it means that those women who have made it are inspiring to people like me. Ruth Bader Ginsburg is one of those women for me.
Ginsburg was one of only nine women in her Harvard Law Class in 1956. The dean even asked her why she was taking a spot away from a man, yet this did not stop her. When the dean denied her request to complete her third year of law school at Colombia but still get a degree from Harvard, she transferred to Colombia and got her law degree, tying for first in the class. Ginsburg was not going to let men who thought she should not be there stop her from getting her law degree.Â
After getting her degree, she once again faced gender discrimination in getting a job. She was rejected from a Supreme Court clerkship because she was a women. She only ended up getting a clerkship because the dean of Colombia Law threatened to never recommend another Colombia student if she did not get the clerkship.Â
She also taught law at Rutgers but was payed less than her male colleagues because her husband had a “good job”.
Ginsburg went on to found the ACLU’s women’s rights project where she argued many cases for women’s rights. Many legal scholars give Ginsburg credit for many of the legal advances that were made under the Equal Protections Clause.Â
In 1980 she was confirmed by the Senate to the DC District Court. She served on this court until 1993 when she was confirmed by the Senate to the Supreme Court. She was the second female to sit on the court. While on the court Ginsburg continued to fight for women’s rights in her decisions. She was on the court until she died in 2020, which was 27 years.
She is not just an inspiration to me. Many other women and girls look up to her. She is known as the Notorious R.B.G. for a reason. While I might not be following her footsteps exactly since I am not going into law, she inspired me to fight for what I believe in; my way of doing that is going to get my master’s in public policy so I can help shape our policy.Â